The short answer
Four dial positions, in this order: DATE/TIME, START TIMES, RUN TIMES, RUN DAYS. Then the dial goes back to AUTO RUN, or nothing waters. The four steps are right below. Further down is a tool that writes a program for your yard and explains the three words the dial never does.
If the ESP-TM2 takes the schedule and a zone still stays dry, that is a repair rather than a setting, and Rain Bird sprinkler repair is the page for that.
Program a Rain Bird ESP-TM2 in Four Steps
Have your run times handy. If you do not have them yet, the program builder below writes them for you.
Step 1: DATE/TIME
The clock every start time is read against. Set it first.
- Turn the dial to DATE/TIME. Press
←or→to move between the month, day, year, hour and minutes. - Press
+or-to change whatever is blinking. Hold either one and the numbers run faster. - For a 24 hour clock, press
→with the minutes blinking, pick the format, then press←to go back.
- Turn the dial to DATE/TIME. Press
Step 2: START TIMES
When the program begins. One start time runs every zone in the program, one after another.
- Turn the dial to START TIMES. Press
Program Selectuntil the display shows program A. - Set start time 1 with
+and-, and check AM against PM. Early morning, so it finishes before sunrise. - Press
→to start time 2 and set it about an hour later. Add a third in summer. Each one is another short pass over the yard. - Press
→through the rest. Anything you did not mean to set, press-past 12:00 AM until it reads OFF. PressProgram Selectand check B and C the same way, because a forgotten program B is why a yard waters twice a day.
- Turn the dial to START TIMES. Press
Step 3: RUN TIMES
How many minutes each zone runs each time its turn comes. Per pass, not per day.
- Turn the dial to RUN TIMES. Press
Program Selectfor program A, then pick station 1 with←or→. - Set the minutes with
+and-. On clay, about 6 for spray heads and 15 for rotors per pass. - Press
→for station 2 and keep going. A zone you want skipped gets 0. - To change one zone later, come back here, press
→to its number, change it, dial to AUTO RUN.
- Turn the dial to RUN TIMES. Press
Step 4: RUN DAYS
Which days the program runs. Most DFW cities allow two.
- Turn the dial to RUN DAYS and press
Program Selectfor program A. One day blinks. - Press
+to make it a watering day or-for a day off. The cursor moves to the next day on its own. - With Sunday showing, pressing
→jumps out of weekdays into cyclic watering. Press←to come back. - Go through all seven, then turn the dial back to AUTO RUN. The ESP-TM2 waters only from AUTO RUN.
- Turn the dial to RUN DAYS and press
Rain Bird walks the same four steps on camera.
Water right now. Dial to MANUAL STATION, press → to the station screen, pick the zone with ← and →, set the minutes, then hold → to start. For the whole program, dial to AUTO RUN, press Program Select for the program, and hold →. To stop, hold the dial on OFF for three seconds.
Stop for rain. Dial to AUTO RUN, hold Program Select, then set the days with + and -. Up to 14 days, and the display shows when watering resumes. Back to 0 cancels it. If a rain sensor is wired in and still wet, nothing starts, and SENSOR set to BYPASS overrides it.
Program, Start Time and Run Time on a Rain Bird ESP-TM2
Almost all of the confusion with this controller comes from three words the dial uses without explaining.
| The word | What it means | What most homes need |
|---|---|---|
| Program | One watering schedule: which days it waters, what time it begins, and how long each zone runs. The controller offers several, lettered A, B, C, so lawn and drip can keep different schedules. | One for the lawn, A. Drip beds get their own, B. |
| Start time | A clock time the program begins. From that time, the zones run one after another, zone 1 then zone 2 then zone 3, until the last one finishes. It is not a time per zone. A second start time runs the whole program again. | Two or three, an hour apart, before sunrise. Each is a short pass, so the clay can soak between them. |
| Run time | How many minutes each zone runs each time its turn comes. Set zone by zone, and it is per pass, not per day. | About 6 minutes for spray heads and 15 for rotors per pass. Two passes doubles it for the day. |
The one that trips people up is the start time. The ESP-TM2 allows four of them per program, labeled 1, 2, 3 and 4, which looks like it wants a time for each zone. It does not. One start time runs every zone in the program, in order, and a second start time runs the whole yard again. That is exactly what clay wants when the run times are short: 6 minutes of spray, soak for an hour, 6 more. It is a flood when the run times are long.
Build a Simple Program for Your Rain Bird ESP-TM2
Walk the yard once and note what each zone waters and what kind of heads it has. Spray heads pop up a few inches and fan out a mist. Rotors turn and throw a single stream. Drip is the tubing in the beds. Then fill this in. It writes the worksheet and the dial steps for you.
Build your program
A simple program for your ESP-TM2
List your zones, pick the two days your city allows, choose a start time. The sheet and the dial steps below update as you go.
The season sets how much each zone gets for the day: about 6 minutes of spray or 15 of rotor in winter, twice that in spring and fall, three times in summer. Clay cannot take a day's worth at once, so the total is split into passes an hour apart. Tick Slope on any zone that runs downhill. A slope does not need less water, it runs off sooner, so it gets the same total in more, shorter passes.
Your worksheet
- Days
- Tue, Sat
- Start times
- 4:00 AM, 5:15 AM (2 passes, each about 48 minutes)
- Finishes about
- 6:33 AM
| Station | Zone | Per pass | Per day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Program A, lawn, 2 start times | |||
| 1 | Front lawnSpray heads | 6 | 12 |
| 2 | Front lawnSpray heads | 6 | 12 |
| 3 | Side yardSpray heads | 6 | 12 |
| 4 | Back lawnRotors | 15 | 30 |
| 5 | Back lawnRotors | 15 | 30 |
| Program B, drip, one start time | |||
| 6 | BedsDrip | 30 | 30 |
Drip goes in program B with a single start time, so it runs once, longer, and can water on fewer days. In program A, leave the drip station at 0. In program B, leave the lawn stations at 0.
Enter it on the ESP-TM2
- Turn the dial to DATE/TIME and set the clock. Every start time is read against it.
- Turn the dial to START TIMES. Make sure program A is showing (press Program Select if it is not). Set start time 1 to 4:00 AM with plus and minus, then the right arrow and set start time 2 to 5:15 AM. Any start time past that stays OFF. Each start time runs the whole program once, which is what the passes are.
- Turn the dial to RUN TIMES. In program A set station 1 to 6, station 2 to 6, station 3 to 6, station 4 to 15, station 5 to 15, using the right arrow to move between stations. Set station 6 to 0 in program A.
- Turn the dial to RUN DAYS and set Tue and Sat on, every other day off (plus turns the blinking day on, minus turns it off, and the cursor moves to the next day by itself).
- Press Program Select to program B. Give it one start time, the same as A's first, set station 6 to 30, leave the lawn stations at 0, and pick its watering days. It runs right after A finishes.
- Turn the dial back to AUTO RUN. Nothing waters from any other position.
About the minutes. Spray heads put water down fast and North Texas clay takes it slowly, so 6 minutes is about as long as a spray zone can run before water heads down the driveway. Rotors put it down at a fraction of that rate, which is why they get 15. Those are starting points for an established lawn in the growing season. The DFW seasonal watering schedule has the month by month numbers and the watering schedule guide shows how to measure your own yard.
If you have drip
Beds on drip want one long run on fewer days, not short passes, so they get their own program. Press Program Select until the display shows B and repeat the four dial positions for the drip stations only, with the lawn stations left at 0 in program B. Give B one start time, the same as A's first. The controller runs A's first pass to the end, then B.
Check That the ESP-TM2 Program Runs
Do not wait until 4:00 AM to find out. Turn the dial to AUTO RUN, press Program Select until program A shows, then press and hold →. The program starts, and the screen shows the station number and the time left on it. Walk the yard and watch each zone come on in turn. If one does not, that is the zone to look at, and one zone not working covers what it usually is.
Seasonal Adjust and Passes Through the Year on the ESP-TM2
Once the program has run for a week and the lawn looks right, the schedule changes with the season in two ways, and neither one touches the run times.
Add or drop a pass. Summer wants three start times, spring and fall two, winter one. Turn the dial to START TIMES, press → to the start time you are adding or removing, and set it or run it down to OFF. The per-pass minutes stay the same all year, because the clay does not change.
Seasonal Adjust. Turn the dial to SEASONAL ADJUST and use + and -. It reads 100 percent, meaning run times run as written, and goes from 5 up to 200. For the in-between weeks nudge it down or up, and every zone runs that percentage of its minutes. Press Program Select first to adjust one program rather than all three. The seasonal watering schedule has a percentage for each month. The ESP-TM2 has no built-in cycle and soak, so the start times are how a run gets split, and cycle and soak explains why that matters on clay.
When a Rain Bird ESP-TM2 Problem Is Not Programming
A controller that takes the program and still misbehaves is telling you about something outside the box.
- A zone that never comes on, while the others do, is a valve or a wire, not a setting.
- A system that waters with the dial on OFF has a valve stuck open. Shut the water off at the irrigation shutoff, because the controller cannot help.
- A blank display with the power on means power is not reaching the controller. Check the AC supply and the 24 VAC terminals.
The controller error codes guide covers the messages an ESP-TM2 can put up, including the short message it shows when it finds a short on a valve circuit. If you are tired of walking to the garage, a Wi-Fi controller moves all of this to your phone, and we are a Certified Rachio Pro installer, so smart controller installation explains what changes and what does not.
Rain Bird ESP-TM2 Programming Questions
How do I set the time on a Rain Bird ESP-TM2?
Why does my Rain Bird ESP-TM2 keep watering over and over?
How many minutes should each zone run on a Rain Bird ESP-TM2?
How do I run one zone manually on a Rain Bird ESP-TM2?
Does the Rain Bird ESP-TM2 lose its program when the power goes out?
What does the short message on my Rain Bird ESP-TM2 mean?
Sources
- Rain Bird. “ESP-TM2 Controller User Manual,” document 690299-01 Rev. 05/16. Dial positions and buttons, Basic Programming steps, the 12 and 24 hour format, four start times per program, run times of one minute to six hours, RUN DAYS and the Sunday caution, Seasonal Adjust 5 to 200 percent, Delay Watering to 14 days, manual watering options, and one simultaneous station plus master valve.
- Rain Bird. “ESP-TM2 Controller User Manual,” Troubleshooting and Safety Information. Excessive watering from start times set unintentionally and the note that a start time per valve is never required, the short message cause and how to clear it, the blank display and the 24 VAC terminals, rain sensor diagnosis, and the lithium battery that retains date and time.
- Rain Bird. “ESP-TM2 Controller: Basic Programming,” Rain Bird YouTube channel. The same four dial positions demonstrated on the controller.